Despite Monday’s notoriously bad reputation, there’s much to celebrate today! Not only has Chicago’s unpredictable weather blessed Booklist staffers with a rare day of perfect sunshine (on Earth Day, no less!), our month of Middle-Grade Mania is still in full swing! In order to commemorate the holiday and demonstrate our support for environmental consciousness and […]
We are thrilled to wish a wonderful birthday to Beverly Cleary, who turns 103 today! This children’s fiction icon brought to life the worlds of such classic characters as Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby. Her books Ramona and Her Father (1978) and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1982) were awarded the Newbery Honor, and in 1984, she […]
Have you heard? There’s a new Spider-Man movie! If your eyes are rolling back into your head, I get it. This is the wall-crawler’s seventh big-screen feature of the twenty-first century (not counting various appearances with the Avengers), but trust me: if you love middle grade, you must see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Forget the […]
As we’re celebrating Middle-Grade Mania, it seems a most excellent time to release the MG edition of our ongoing Title Trend: The Nouns of Full Names feature. Earlier this year, I rounded up a host of examples in the YA edition, but this special installment has about twice as many books and reveals a few […]
Today’s the day. For the first time in Booklist history, our already robust annual Spotlight on Middle-Grade Reading will coincide with an entire month of downright maniacal levels of middle-grade coverage. If you follow us on social media, you know we’ve already unveiled 25 of the 50 Best Middle-Grade Novels of the Twenty-First Century—and will […]
Let the mania begin! Today through Friday, April 12, we’ll be unveiling our Books for Youth staff’s selections of this century’s 50 best middle-grade novels for modern libraries. Each day, two to three titles (appearing in alphabetical order by author last name) will be revealed at both @ALA_Booklist (Twitter) and @Booklist (Facebook). Which books will be announced today? Follow […]
Cindy: Doesn’t everyone need a butler to appear on their doorstep to help restore order and routine to their household? He might not have the supernatural talents of Mary Poppins, but the butler in Gary D. Schmidt’s new book, Pay Attention, Carter Jones (2019), works his own kind of magic. The butler, Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick, was […]
Twins Are All the Rage These Days This list originally appeared in the November 19, 2018, issue of Booklandia, our FREE newsletter devoted to young-adult and middle-grade lit (never in the same issue). The premise of List & Shout? We make a clever list of YA or MG trends, and you forward it to everyone […]
Jo Watson Hackl debuted last month with Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe (Random), a middle-grade novel that places an art mystery in a Mississippi ghost town. The story is narrated by 12-year-old Cricket, who Booklist reviewer Carolyn Phelan describes as “idiosyncratic, intrepid, and wholly likable.” Cricket grew up hearing about a secret room, and when […]
The recent death of Richard Peck at age 84 invites reminiscence. I first met him back in the early 80s, when I interviewed him for my television author interview program In Print. I was immediately impressed by how easily articulate he was. I so enjoyed talking with him that we continued our conversation after the […]
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